Too Late
by rbs89
Summary: Booth took a case out of state so that he could learn to not love her, but the distance and time didn't help. Did the time apart affect her view of "them" at all? Spoilers up to Predator in the Pool 5x18. B&B. Oneshot. Please R&R.


**Disclaimer**: I do not intend to financially profit from FOX, Kathy Reichs, or fans of the TV show.

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**Too Late**

Above all, Special Agent Seeley Booth wanted her to be happy, never mind the cost to him.

He knew that Bones knew something really was wrong between them.

It had started when she started seeing his boss, and he settled with second best, because no one could take the place Bones had in his heart. It had hurt him more than he expected, and the happier Bones was with someone else, the more it ate away at him, consuming his head and heart.

But second best was no longer as shiny, or as attractive as it had been at the beginning, and he decided that if Doctor Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist and bestselling author didn't want him, no one could have him.

Remembering a conversation that had occurred what felt like lifetimes ago, he grimaced at his present situation. If there were no more murders in the world, their relationship would diminish to coffee. And although there were still murderers, their relationship had been relegated to coffees at crime scenes.

She was busy in the evenings having loveless sex with his boss, and he was busy fighting the urge to destroy everything that reminded him of her or drinking himself into a stupor, or both.

He had gambled, and lost.

He had taken on a RICO case at the request of the Philadelphia field office, his old hunting ground, and he had accepted out of despair. Hopefully out of town, out of mind. Hacker had told him in confidence that a positive outcome could possibly resolve in a promotion, most likely to heading up a unit in organized crimes.

The possibility of returning to DC without having to regularly coming into contact with Dr Temperance Brennan definitely had an appeal. It would make moving on that tiny bit more easier.

As usual, his free time was spent meditating on the enigma that was Temperance Brennan.

He had visited the old haunts of his youth, and thought about his fantasy family

Where he'd go when home was unbearable, and thought about how his children would never have to go through what he had to growing up.

Bones hadn't understood when he left. He explained that he had been specifically requested to help, that he felt obligated somehow to his old life. She knew he was lying, but she couldn't see the truth. She had thought he was leaving her, just like everyone else in her life. Her mother, her father, her brother and now her partner.

She couldn't see that she had left him.

She hadn't seen that he had needed her just as much as she had needed him.

She had said that she was protecting him from her, but he wasn't afraid of getting his heart broken, because the cost of putting it on the line was nothing in comparison to the joy of being together.

He had lied because he couldn't bear to see the pain of rejection and abandonment in her eyes. Of accusation, of disappointment. Her version of proof that no one loved her enough to stay.

He hadn't discounted or forgotten what Gordon Gordon had told him what felt like a lifetime ago. That he was in love with Temperance Brennan.

It was the first time that he acknowledged that he didn't merely like or loved in an atta' girl kind of way. It wasn't just his brain reacting to the stimuli Bones had fed him while he had been in coma.

He adored her. He wanted the next thirty, forty, fifty years with her. He wanted to fill the void in her heart which most assumed was incapable of feeling, but was in fact merely weary of disappointment. That's what he had wanted to say the first time the discussion arose of the possibility of an "us".

And the time away from DC, away from her, instead of helping him forget, only accentuated his own loneliness, his own crushed heart.

He had worked hard, was the first person in and the last person to leave the office. He worked the younger field agents hard, instilling the importance of a solid chain of evidence when dealing with the mob, and gained a reputation of being a hard taskmaster. He was never satisfied with the FBI techs at crime scenes, always commenting on their incompetence in comparison to the scientists of the Jeffersonian.

And with successful prosecution of a few of the top cats in the infamous institution, he was now back, unsure of his next step, his game plan. He didn't feel he could return to the Jeffersonian, _her_ space.

Had she been in _his_ space?

His place, her place. Both were sterile, impersonal, used by others. And yet it was part of them, it was _theirs_.

What was Bones doing now? From Parker's sparse visits to Philadelphia and daily phone calls, the squints and Bones were doing fine without him. It couldn't be helped that Parker didn't understand fully the nuances that indicated a person's state of mind. He spoke more about the "awesome", "cool" and "wicked" experiments they did at the after school science club at the Jeffersonian.

No one was there to pick Booth up, and he picked up a rental, annoyed he would have to wait till the next day for his FBI-issued SUV.

He wasn't ready to return to his apartment just yet, and directed the car towards the Hoover.

As he wandered towards his office, he saw Hacker and Bones waiting within. He observed the tension between the two, tension that hadn't been evident before he had left over six months ago. Bones looked eager to spill her heart, and Hacker looked as though he wanted to be anywhere but where he was.

Perhaps Hacker couldn't keep up with Bones and sate her sexual appetite, or perhaps Bones felt that Hacker was getting too needy, and needed to distance herself from him, just as Bones had done to himself.

Booth braced himself, entering his office.

The greetings were perfunctory, and Hacker indicated he had to leave, and congratulated Booth on his work in Philly and to his new office upstairs that was being prepared for him. With that, Hacker left Booth and Bones alone, closing the door behind him.

Silence, then-

"You were gone for so long." Bones stated.

"Philadelphia isn't that far away. You could have visited with Parker." Booth countered.

Then, "How are our squints?"

Bones smiled. "You know, we don't always squint."

A short pause.

"Bones, I-"

Bones interrupted him. "Booth, I know that this... time apart was a test."

"Really? And what are your conclusions, Dr. Brennan?"

"I was wrong to push you away. That you want what's best for me. You want me to be happy, even if it's with another man. That I love the idea of us as a family. That we can learn how to do that together."

"Are you sure Bones? Because once I have you, I won't have the power to let go."

"Yes. From what I understand of love, I can say with all sincerity that I do love you, Seeley Booth"

He hadn't been too late, after all.

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